Modeling the Influence of Land Use Developments on Transportation System Performance

The growth in the urban population has influenced urban sprawl, congestion, and subsequently, delays on the existing road infrastructure. New land use developments occur in every part of the city due to rapid economic development and to meet the demand for better living standards. The induced traffic volume generated from such land use developments often results in increased congestion and vehicular delay on the existing roads. With recent advancements in the technology, it is possible to capture continuous, and comprehensive travel time data for every major corridor in a city. Therefore, the goal of this research is to model the influence of land use developments on travel time variations to improve the mobility of people and goods. Data for 259 road links were selected within the city of Charlotte, North Carolina (NC). Three years of travel time data, from the year 2013 to the year 2015, were collected from the private agency. Thirty-five different types of land use developments were considered in this research. The spatial dependency was incorporated by considering the land use developments within 0.5 miles, 1 mile, 2 miles, and 3 miles of the selected road link. Forty-eight statistical models were developed. The results obtained indicate that land use developments have a significant influence on travel times. Different land use categories contribute to the average travel time based on the buffer width, area type, and the link speed limit. Developing the models by classifying the links based on the speed limit (\u3c 45 mph, 45 to 50 mph, and \u3e 50 mph) was observed to be the best approach to examine the relationship between land use developments and the average travel time. Also, typically travel time on a selected road link is higher during the evening peak period compared to the morning peak and the afternoon off-peak period. Further, the results obtained indicate that the number of lanes and the posted speed limit are negatively associated with the travel time of the selected link

Updating the Taskbar with Contextual Actions Relevant to the Application in Focus

Users perform a variety of actions when interacting with a software application via various user interface (UI) controls provided by the application to perform operations corresponding to the actions. Differences in user interfaces across applications and the requirement to perform complex actions such as multi-click can be confusing and cumbersome. Users benefit from quick and easy access to high-priority contextual actions. This disclosure describes a dynamically updating taskbar provided by a device operating system. With user permission, the taskbar changes dynamically based on the currently active application as the user switches between applications. The taskbar provides quick access to the most important interactive elements within the application in focus (and optionally, the specific task being performed), such as specific buttons or controls. When the user switches to a different application, the interactive elements shown on the taskbar are updated with the appropriate interactive elements corresponding to the new application in focus

Fabrication of Nonplanar Surfaces Via 5-Axis 3D Printing

The advancements in manufacturing have always played a vital role in human life. One of the most recent and growing manufacturing methods is additive manufacturing (AM). AM has been in focus for its ability to manufacture intricate parts with internal features which are not possible with traditional manufacturing processes. Making parts lighter and stronger has been the goal for most AM processes. The advancements in AM have made it possible to produce parts with high strength internal structures. The overall strength of the manufactured plastic parts depends on several variables. The part’s strength is determined by the material, the build direction, the infill settings, and the printing parameters. Optimization of each of these variables is critical for obtaining the desired result for the intended application of the printed part. One of the major drawbacks of these parts is the weak interlayer bonding within parts which are susceptible to failure under high loads. Similarly, the stair stepping effect compromises the surface finish of a part. This is prominently seen when the angle of inclination is less than 30 degrees. Previous research shows that the mixture of non-planar and planar layers in a 3DP part can improve its surface finish. Non-Planar 3D printing done using a 3-axis machine is limited by the angle of the nozzle with respect to the previously printed layers. This study will focus on incorporating 5-axis 3D printer toolpath motions to print nonplanar surfaces. It will also shed some light on the enhanced mechanical properties of the parts which have non-planar layers as compared to conventionally 3D printed parts

PROCESSING OF 3′-BLOCKED DNA DOUBLE-STRAND BREAKS BY TYROSYL-DNA PHOSPHODIESTERASE 1, ARTEMIS AND POLYNUCLEOTIDE KINASE/ PHOSPHATASE

DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) containing unligatable termini are potent cytotoxic lesions leading to growth arrest or cell death. The Artemis nuclease and tyrosyl-DNA phosphodiesterase (TDP1) are each capable of resolving protruding 3′-phosphoglycolate (PG) termini of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). Consequently, a knockout of Artemis and a knockout/knockdown of TDP1 rendered cells sensitive to the radiomimetic agent neocarzinostatin (NCS), which induces 3′-PG-terminated DSBs. Unexpectedly, however, a knockdown or knockout of TDP1 in Artemis-null cells did not confer any greater sensitivity than either deficiency alone, indicating a strict epistasis between TDP1 and Artemis. Moreover, a deficiency in Artemis, but not TDP1, resulted in a fraction of unrepaired DSBs, which were assessed as 53BP1 foci. Conversely, a deficiency in TDP1, but not Artemis, resulted in a dramatic increase in dicentric chromosomes following NCS treatment. An inhibitor of DNA-dependent protein kinase, a key regulator of the classical nonhomologous end joining (C-NHEJ) pathway sensitized cells to NCS but eliminated the sensitizing effects of both TDP1 and Artemis deficiencies. Moreover, Polynucleotide Kinase/ Phosphatase (PNKP) is known to process 3′-phosphates and 5′-hydroxyls during DSB repair. PNKP-deficiency sensitized both HCT116 and HeLa cells to 3′-phosphate ended DSBs formed upon radiation and radiomimetic drug treatment. The increased cytotoxicity in the absence of PNKP was synonymous with persistent, un-rejoined 3′-phosphate-ended DSBs. However, DNA-PK deficiency sensitized PNKP-/- cells to low doses of NCS suggesting that, in the absence of PNKP, alternative enzyme(s) can remove 3′-phosphates in a DNA-PK-dependent manner. These results suggest that TDP1 and Artemis perform different functions in the repair of terminally blocked DSBs by the C-NHEJ pathway, and that whereas an Artemis deficiency prevents end joining of some DSBs, a TDP1 deficiency tends to promote DSB mis-joining. In addition, loss of PNKP significantly sensitizes cells to 3′-phosphate-ended DSBs due to a defect in 3′-dephosphorylation

Interplay between Artemis and TDP1 in sensitivity to radiomimetic agents

DNA double-strand breaks containing unligatable termini are potent cytotoxic lesions leading to cell death or growth arrest. Artemis, which is associated with the Non-Homologous End Joining (NHEJ) pathway, is the major end processing nuclease that resolves unligatable termini, especially the 3′ blocks, by nucleolytic trimming. Tyrosyl-DNA Phosphodiesterase 1 (TDP1) is an enzyme which is biochemically competent in 3′-phosphoglycolate processing. The purpose of this study is to investigate if TDP1 is an end-processing enzyme involved in the NHEJ pathway. Clonogenic Survival assays using shRNA-mediated TDP1 knockdown and Artemis knockout (Artemis-/-) in HCT116 cells showed increased sensitivity to Neocarzinostatin (NCS) and Calicheamicin, radiomimetic drugs that produce 3′-phosphoglycolate-terminated double-strand breaks. Thus, a cell line with combined deficiency in Artemis and TDP1 was generated by infecting Artemis-/- single mutants with a lentivirus expressing a TDP1 shRNA. Positive clones were screened for maximum TDP1 knockdown which was found to be 10X. Clonogenic survival assays carried out on shTDP1 & Artemis-/- single mutants and the Artemis-/-.shTDP1 double mutants showed similar sensitivity to Calicheamicin and NCS. Immunofluorescence studies on Art-/- and Art-/-.shTDP1 mutants also showed a similar increase in persistent 53BP1 foci, a measure of DNA damage, after treatment with NCS. Cell cycle analysis studies showed all these mutants arrest in G1 phase of the cell cycle after treatment with NCS. Thus, taken all together, surprisingly, these experiments suggest that TDP1 functions are epistatic with Artemis in the NHEJ pathway for repair of Calicheamicin- and NCS-mediated DNA damage

Application or Tab Switching via Mouse Hover and Scroll

Many computer users use several applications simultaneously for various tasks. Switching between applications or browser tabs is cumbersome and requires the user to lift their fingers off the keyboard, move the cursor to the target application via a pointing device, and click the pointing device. This disclosure describes techniques that enable a user to rapidly switch between applications or browser tabs using the scroll of a mouse or a trackpad. The user can simply hover the mouse pointer over the system taskbar or browser tab-bar and scroll the mouse or trackpad to switch between apps or tabs

Effect of Volume Fraction and Fiber Distribution on Stress Transfer in a Stochastic Framework of Continuous Fiber Composite: A Micromechanical Study

In fiber Reinforced Composites (FRC) fiber breakage is a common phenomenon resulting in stress concentration. This high stress gets transfer in the vicinity of the breakage which is quantified by Stress Transfer Coefficient (STC). In this paper, an attempt is made to check the effect of fiber volume fraction and the distribution of the fibers on STC and ineffective length. The fiber volume fraction is changed considering three cases: 1) by changing the number of fibers, 2) by changing the dimension of the Represntative Volume Element (RVE) and 3) by changing the fiber radius. Cases with change in dimension of RVE and change in fiber radius, periodic and semi-random arrangents of fibers are considered. From the analysis of 200 RVE's for each volume fraction in random and semi-random arrangements, it is observed that the distribution of STC does not follow any standard distribution, even if the fiber arrangement follows the normal distribution. The fiber cross-sectional dimension plays a critical role in regaining the broken fiber strength. The periodic arrangement of fibers can be said to be beneficial over the random arrangement considering the stress transfer from the broken fiber

Green Building: Load Management Scheme for Flattening Household Electricity Usage or Demand

Flattening household electricity demand reduces generation costs, since costs are disproportionately affected by peak demands. Buildings today consume more energy than either of society?s other broad sectors of energy consumption industry and transportation. As a result, nearly half (47%) of energy use in residential buildings is lost in electricity transmission and distribution (T&D) from far-away power plants to distant homes. An important way to decrease both T&D losses and carbon emissions is through distributed generation (DG) from many small on-site renewable energy sources deployed at individual buildings and homes. Distributed generation (DG) uses many small onsite energy harvesting deployments at individual buildings to generate electricity. DG has the potential to make generation more efficient by reducing transmission and distribution losses, carbon emissions, and demand peaks. In this paper, we explore an alternative approach that combines market-based electricity pricing models with on-site renewables and modest energy storage (in the form of batteries) to incentivize DG called Green Building. The objectives of green charge is to develop an alternative approach that combines market-based electricity pricing models with on-site renewable and modest energy storage (in the form of batteries) to incentivize DG (Distributed Generation). We propose a system architecture and optimization algorithm, called Green Building, to efficiently manage the renewable energy and storage to reduce a building?s electric bill

A New Approach of Clustering Feedback Sessions for Inferring User Search Goals

Internet information is growing every day exponentially. In order to find out the exact required information from this web search engines has become absolutely necessary tool for the web users. It has also become more difficult to provide user the required information. When Different users provide an ambiguous query to a search engine, they might be having different search goals. Therefore, it is required to find and analyze user search goals to improve the performance of a search engine and user experience. By representing the results in cluster we find out different user search goals for a query. It has advantages in improving search engine relevance and user experience. It extends the delivery and quality of internet information services to the end user. It also improves performance of Web server system. Query classification, search result reorganization and session boundary detection are the approaches attempt to find out user search goals. But the mentioned approaches has many limitations. A new approach has been implemented that overcomes the limitations and analyze, discover user search goals using feedback sessions. This approach first takes the user search query. For each single result of the search query pseudo-documents are generated. Using K-means++ clustering algorithm, these pseudo-documents are clustered. Each cluster can be considered as one user search goal. Finally in restructured result is given to the user where each URL is categorized into a cluster centered by the inferred search goals. Then depending upon user click through, results are restructured and represented to the user in order to satisfy the information need. DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.15071